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Monday, November 27, 2017

I've been designing in white thread because I can find it at the local craft stores, and the lack of color makes it really easy to see the negative space. However, I'd like to tat this doily again with a touch of color. I'll also use the opportunity to make some very small changes (reducing the number of picots in the last round and adjusting the size of a couple of rings).

For now, I've placed it under a vase of wooden flowers:

The doily isn't very big, measuring about 11 inches across when tatted in Lizbeth size 20 thread.

Also, a reminder that my Etsy shop is having a sale for a couple more days (ending Tuesday, November 28). Everything in the shop is 20% off and the discount is automatically applied.

Friday, November 24, 2017

A really quick post today to say that all of the patterns in my Etsy shop are on sale until Tuesday, November 28. Everything is 20% off and the discount is automatically applied (no coupon code needed). If you use the Etsy app, make sure you are running the latest version to see accurate pricing.

Other Etsy shops are having sales this weekend too, so be sure to browse around if you've been eyeing anything for the holidays. I'll be doing almost all of my holiday shopping online so I don't have to deal with the rush in the stores!

Friday, November 17, 2017

Designing this round wasn't bad at all. Tatting it, on the other hand, took some time:

To help with the design, I rendered a polar grid on Inkscape and printed it out. I used some spare thread to create a small tatted sample, and held the doily up to the grid to make sure that everything fit. I forgot to take photos of that, but here's the doily and polar grid side by side:

I took Sue's advice from the tatting design class, and placed my polar grid into a clear plastic sheet. This ensures that no ink gets on the tatting.

Here you can see the small sample I tatted before coming up with the final stitch counts. On the bottom is the sample, and on the top is the in progress tatting:

I eventually had to cut off the sample so I could complete the round:

The doily will need one more round before it is finished. It will be simple, just a trimming along the outer edge.

Friday, November 3, 2017

Putting together a bunch of patterns is a lot of work, and I wanted to do some tatting that was more leisurely. I'm trying my hand at designing a doily, without any drawings this time. So far so good:

Each round has been pretty simple because I want to save the detail for the last few rounds. I'll be mirroring the center as a series of scallops around the edge, and that will be the most difficult part to design. We'll see how it goes...

Saturday, October 21, 2017

The snowflake patterns that I've been working on over the past several months are now in my Etsy shop, a few days earlier than expected. You can get to the listing by clicking here.

The digital file contains 12 snowflake patterns and 2 stars. Closeups of the patterns can be seen in the listing photos on Etsy. For this project, I experimented with different variations on themes. You might notice that several of the patterns are similar to each other. I also tried out a couple of new (to me) techniques including layered rings.

Creating a set of patterns like this is giving me good practice for self publishing a printed book. I still have to do a lot of research on that front though. I wonder what types of patterns I should include in a book?

Anyhow, I've emailed the full pattern file to everyone who test tatted one of these flakes for me. If you were a test tatter and don't see the file in your inbox, let me know.